House bills designed to help veterans

Five bills related to helping veterans passed the U.S. House of Representatives in recent days by wide margins. All will now go to the Senate for consideration.

By Bill ThompsonStaff writer

Just in time for Memorial Day, federal lawmakers have voted on a number of measures to help military veterans.

Five bills related to recognizing, aiding or financially compensating veterans passed the U.S. House of Representatives in recent days by wide margins. All will now go to the Senate for consideration.

The legislate package includes the American Heroes COLA Act, a measure that automatically indexes payments to disabled veterans to increase as the cost of living does.

The program, which also applies to payments of dependents of disabled veterans, would mirror the automatic jump in Social Security benefits.

According to a report by the House Veterans Affairs Committee, lawmakers routinely passed the yearly adjustment. Still, the process made veterans wait on Congress before seeing the rise in their compensation.

“Service-disabled veterans who are receiving disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs should also automatically see their benefits increase, particularly in light of the current economic climate … rather than being subject to the uncertainty of an annual COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) bill,” the House report noted.

In another economic-related bill, the Improving Job Opportunities for Veterans Act attempts to make it easier for certain companies to hire veterans.

The bill would amend a 1967 law mandating that employers providing on-the-job and apprenticeship programs for veterans must pay 85 percent of the full salary for each job, while the VA would pay the other 15 percent.

This mandate, according to a report prepared by House Republicans, limited the number of such positions available to veterans. That’s because the 85 percent requirement made employers reluctant to hire veterans.

The bill, which passed the House 416-0, would reduce that amount to 75 percent over a four-year period, with the government paying the remainder, thus offering employers an incentive to higher veterans for on-the-job training.

Lawmakers also took steps to ensure certain troops receive proper recognition for their service to their country.

The House voted 415-0 to award the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to the First Special Service Force, a joint American-Canadian commando unit in World War II.

The 1,800-member volunteer unit, known as the “Devil’s Brigade,” was a forerunner to contemporary special operations units in both the U.S. and Canada.

The bill orders the creation of two gold medals that commemorate the unit’s combat action in France and Italy between 1942 and 1944, when it was disbanded.

One medal will be provided to the Smithsonian Institution and the other will go to the First Special Service Force Association in Helena, Mont., where the First Special Service Force trained after its formation.

A second bill designed to commemorate the heroism of select troops makes it crime to falsely claim to be a recipient of the nation’s highest military honors.

The Stolen Valor Act decrees that anyone who claims to have received certain medals in order to obtain money, property, or some other “tangible” benefit faces up to a year in prison, a fine, or both.

Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed, a similar measure in 2006. But last year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law, saying its overly broad language violated the First Amendment.

The new bill is more tailored by focusing on any attempted fraud to obtain compensation.

This is the only one of the five headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.

The Senate gave it unanimous approval after it had passed the House 390-3.

Finally, the House passed the Helping Heroes Fly Act, which aims to help disabled veterans traveling by air.

It does so by directing the Transportation Security Administration to set aside an area for expedited pre-flight security screening of disabled veterans, sparing them the long lines and detailed searches faced by regular airline passengers.

A report by House Republicans observes that in 2011 the TSA instituted such a program, called PreCheck, allowing some frequent flyers to pass through a dedicated security checkpoint without having to take off their shoes or belts, or remove laptop computers and liquids from their bags.

PreCheck, which is available at 40 major U.S. airports, has been expanded to include active-duty military personnel and, as of March, “severely injured” troops in the military, the report says.

The Helping Heroes Fly Act passed the House 413-0.

U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent, a Brooksville Republican who represents the city of Ocala and most of Marion County, said in an email: “With as frustrating as the partisanship has been on a lot of issues recently, it’s encouraging to see that the House could come together and more or less unanimously move some legislation to help veterans.

“Whether it’s addressing COLAs, supporting the creation of more job opportunities, or simply helping make the airport security experience better for veterans, these are commonsense bills and so far, the Senate has only acted on one of the five,” added Nugent, who co-sponsored the Stolen Valor Act and supported the other legislation.